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Canadian Journal of Physics

One source of spin–orbit coupling in the Schrödinger representation

R. Chatterjee, J.M. Dixon

Published Dec 1, 1979• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The origin of spin–orbit coupling has been investigated in the Schrödinger picture with the constraint of Galilean invariance. A Lagrangian has been constructed with this group symmetry which contains a term that has been interpreted as the damping of the translational motion of the electron in a spinor field. From the Lagrangian a Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] has been formed by classical methods. A unitary transformation has been found which transforms [Formula: see text] into a Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] which contains not only the Zeeman terms, with the correct magnetic moment, but also the spin–orbit coupling.

DOI
10.1139/p79-281

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The origin of spin–orbit coupling has been investigated in the Schrödinger picture with the constraint of Galilean invariance. A Lagrangian has been constructed with this group symmetry which contains a term that has been interpreted as the damping of the translational motion of the electron in a spinor field. From the Lagrangian a Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] has been formed by classical methods. A unitary transformation has been found which transforms [Formula: see text] into a Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] which contains not only the Zeeman terms, with the correct magnetic moment, but also the spin–orbit coupling.
The evolution operator of the spin–orbit coupled system in an external magnetic field is factorized according to the operator equation:[Formula: see text]where HSO is the spin–orbit coupled Hamiltonian and HZ is the Zeeman Hamiltonian. The preceding equation is expressed in matrix form using the theory of the O(4) group representations. For the special case of [Formula: see text], an explicit form of the matrix C(t) is found. The operator corresponding to the matrix C(t) is found in a closed form using the projection operators constructed in the Appendix. Two special cases, corresponding to a weak and a strong external field, are considered, and possible applications of the results obtained are indicated.
A neo-classical relativistic mechanics theory is presented where the spin of an electron is a natural part of its space-time path as a point particle. The fourth-order equation of motion corresponds to the same Lagrangian function in proper time as in special relativity except for an additional spin energy term. The total motion can be decomposed into a sum of a local spin motion about a point and a global motion of this point, called the spin center. The global motion is sub-luminal and obeys Newton's second law in proper time, the time for a clock fixed at the spin center, while the total motion occurs at the speed of light c, consistent with the eigenvalues of Dirac's velocity operators having magnitude c. The local spin motion corresponds to Schrödinger's zitterbewegung and is a perpetual motion, which for a free electron has a circular path in the spin-center frame. In an electro-magnetic field, this spin motion generates magnetic and electric dipole energies through the Lorentz force on the electron's point charge. The corresponding electric dipole energy is consistent with the spin-orbit coupling term in the corrected Pauli non-relativistic Hamiltonian but the magnetic dipole energy is one half of that in Dirac's theory. By defining a spin tensor as the angular momentum of the electron's total motion about its spin center, the fundamental equations of motion can be re-written in an identical form to those of the Barut-Zanghi electron theory. These equations of motion can then be expressed using operators applied to a state function of proper time satisfying a Dirac-Schrödinger spinor equation. The operators produce dynamic variables without any probability implications. For the free electron, the state function satisfies Dirac's relativistic wave equation when the Lorentz transformation is applied to express proper time in terms of an observer's space-time coordinates.
In quantum mechanics, there is a profound distinction between orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum in which the former can be associated with the motion of a physical object in space but the latter cannot. The difference leads to a radical deviation in the formulation of their corresponding dynamics in which an orbital angular momentum can be described by using a coordinate system but a spin angular momentum cannot. In this work, we show that it is possible to treat spin angular momentum in the same manner as orbital angular momentum by formulating spin dynamics using Schrödinger equation in an intrinsic coordinate system. As an illustration, we apply the formulation to the dynamics of a hydrogen atom and show that the intrinsic spin angular momentum of the electron can take half-integral values and, in particular, the intrinsic mass of the electron can take negative values. We also consider a further extension by generalising the formulation so that it can be used to describe other intrinsic dynamics that may associate with a quantum particle, for example, when a hydrogen atom radiates a photon, the photon associated with the electron may also possess an intrinsic dynamics that can be described by an intrinsic wave equation that has a similar form to that for the electron.
Closed systems in Newtonian mechanics obey the principle of Galilean relativity. However, the usual Lagrangian for Newtonian mechanics, formed from the difference of kinetic and potential energies, is not invariant under the full group of Galilean transformations. In quantum mechanics, Galilean boosts require a non-trivial transformation rule for the wave function and a concomitant “projective representation” of the Galilean symmetry group. Using Feynman's path integral formalism, this latter result can be shown to be equivalent to the non-invariance of the Lagrangian. Thus, using path integral methods, the representation of certain symmetry groups in quantum mechanics can be simply understood in terms of the transformation properties of the classical Lagrangian and conversely. The main results reported here should be accessible to students and teachers of physics—particularly classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and mathematical physics—at the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate levels, providing a useful exposition for those wanting to explore topics such as the path integral formalism for quantum mechanics, relativity principles, Lagrangian mechanics, and representations of symmetries in classical and quantum mechanics.